A mother of three was told she was “allergic to the weather” before enduring a four-year fight for answers that ended in a devastating leukaemia diagnosis.
Four-year battle for a diagnosis
Virginie Alba’s symptoms began with night sweats. A Google search suggested she might be menopausal, but at 39 she dismissed the idea. When a persistent cough developed, she visited a GP after over-the-counter cough medicine had no effect.
Mrs Alba said: “I explained the cough and the sweating, and was told it was early menopause and I was also ‘allergic to the weather’, something like hay fever.”
She was prescribed tablets, but when her symptoms worsened and one of her legs became swollen, she called her employer’s staff care number for advice. The 49-year-old says she was told the swelling was due to standing all day in her job as a kitchen assistant at a hospital in London. Medics there attributed her weight loss to early menopause.
A simple blood test missed
By this time, she had experienced symptoms for four years and had made countless unsuccessful trips to Urgent Care and her GP. She said: “I was angry at this point. But I didn't know back then I could ask for blood tests myself. I thought they might offer them, but they didn’t.”
It was only after moving to Chesham in Buckinghamshire that she began to get answers with her new GP. After developing a sharp pain on her left-hand side and noticing a large lump in her abdomen, she booked an emergency appointment.
Mrs Alba said: “The GP looked through all my notes and said, ‘You’ve been [seeing doctors] for four years with all these symptoms, but no one has requested a blood test?’ She asked me to book one, so I did.”
Diagnosis and treatment
After feeling very unwell over the following days, she returned to the GP surgery and was sent to hospital. There she finally had a blood test, and on November 21, 2019, she was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), a rare, slow-growing blood cancer.
Her treatment included a gruelling chemotherapy regime, with side effects including her nails turning black, exhaustion, breathlessness, bleeding gums, skin rashes and hair loss. She has now finished treatment and only needs regular blood tests.
Mrs Alba said: “I’m good, very good now. I feel like the luckiest woman in the world. But there are other people who are not so lucky. There are families of children without parents today because no one took five minutes to just say, you know what, you need a blood test.”
Raising awareness with Leukaemia UK
She is sharing her story in support of the charity Leukaemia UK to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of leukaemia. Leukaemia UK chief executive Fiona Hazell said: “We’re so grateful to Virginie for sharing her story to help raise awareness of leukaemia. Most of the signs and symptoms are not specific, so can often get mistaken for other illnesses or be explained away. Early diagnosis saves lives. That is why we encourage anyone with symptoms to make sure it’s nothing serious by speaking to their GP and asking for a full blood count test.”
The most common symptoms of leukaemia are extreme tiredness (fatigue), bruising, unusual bleeding and repeated infections. Leukaemia UK is urging everyone to be aware of these signs and to contact their GP and ask for a full blood count test if something does not feel right.
